Fund Groups

The Andrew W. Mellon Graduate Research Seminar is a year-long, six credit course intended to reach beyond the objectives of a typical graduate seminar by experimenting with existing models of research and creating new models of collaboration and pedagogy.

2019-20 Rice Seminar - Topic

The Rice Seminars are designed to promote humanistic research, broadly understood. They bring together a select group of Rice faculty members, visiting scholars, and Rice graduate students to study a common theme from several disciplinary perspectives. Funding is also available to bring in outside speakers to present public talks, provide feedback, meet with the seminar participants, participate in a year-end conference, and otherwise engage with seminar participants and the broader Rice community. The most visible goal of the seminars is a scholarly publication to which all participants will contribute. Equally important but less visible is the creation of international and interdisciplinary scholarly communities that will outlive the seminars themselves. The topic of the Rice Seminars changes each year.

Chao Center for Asian Studies Funding

The Chao Center for Asian Studies focuses on transnational, transhistoric, diasporic, and global movements of peoples and cultures of Asia. The Chao Center also plays an important role in reaching the Asian and Asian American populations in Houston and beyond, promoting community building and broader cultural understanding. Its funds support projects that contribute to the Center's mission.

Faculty Teaching-Release Fellowships

Every fall, up to 10 faculty members are selected by the Humanities Research Center to receive a one-semester teaching release during the following academic year. These fellowships are competitively awarded in order to facilitate the completion, development, or initiation of either individual or collaborative research projects. Faculty Teaching-Release Fellows meet regularly throughout the year to share their research activities through a "work-in-progress" presentation series.